Lynchpins
by Tumerboy12
Summary: Think of this as a retelling of the awakening story but with some OC's and twists I've added in to keep things interesting. Rated T - M. (gosh I suck at summaries).
1. Rebirth

**Hi guys, this is my first story so please read and leave review constructive or not they are welcome, but please don't hate.  
**

**Lynchpins**

Prologue 1

"Wake up please," a friendly feminine voice called out to me. It was weird; the voice seemed like it was far off and distant, yet still somehow I felt like I knew this person my entire life. This was strange because I'd never heard this voice before, and yet there was a strange familiarity to not just the voice, but its owner as well.

I was just beginning think about how this could be possible when the voice spoke again, this time in a way that one would expect a god to use with its subjects. "I told you to wake up **mortal.**" The statement was less reminder and more angry command.

And so just like that, I was **wide** awake and ready to take on whatever life would send my way, just as soon as I completed my morning rituals. "Now that's weird" I thought aloud, my voice strangely echoing through what seemed like a small room. This is how I noticed the eerie lack of furniture in this place. "Oh good, you're awake." The voice was friendly once more. This time it came from behind me, as in directly behind me, which startled me. When I turned around, there was a beautiful, angelic-looking, serpentine woman. "Greetings mortal, I am Naga, and while I'm sure you have many questions, I'm afraid there is little time to discuss such things, as there is much preparation that needs to be done."

Naga then materialized a tablet out of nowhere and began doing God only knows what. That's when I felt searing pain throughout my entire being. I started screaming, but that didn't help at all. I thought I was going to die if this didn't stop soon, scratch that, I knew the pain would kill me if this kept up. Suddenly, I realized that the pain was leaving me, but something was off, I felt different, not just on the outside but inside too.

"Milady Naga, sensors show that the subject has survived both the awakening and the physical reconstruction. Shall we start shadow integration?"

"That won't be necessary Caroline. You and the other sentinels are dismissed."

And with that, Caroline and the other sentinels that had been in the room with Naga took their leave, or at least I assume they left, because it looked like Naga was ready to speak again.

"Well it's good to see you survived. I should tell you that if you have any questions, now is the time to ask, otherwise you'll have to ask your shadow." Ever since I'd woke up, I had steadily been accumulating more and more questions, like "Where was I?", "How did I get here?", and "What the heck do they mean by awakening and reconstruction?" But the most prominent questions were "What the heck is a shadow?" and "Why can't I remember a damn thing?"

However, due to the massive amount pain I had just endured, I couldn't really form any lucid thoughts outside of "What the hell?" or "Ouch!", among other like thoughts.

"Well if you don't have any problems, then we should really get you fitted", Naga spoke again. Before I could have possibly interjected, I found myself staring at a class stat sheet thing. "As you can plainly see, your starting class will be _Mystic Swordsman, _and your starting skill will be _Adaptability._ Now please stay still while I give your stats a tune up." There was a slight pause as she turned back to her tablet and began working with furious speed. "Well, that's done, but I'm afraid we won't have time to fully integrate your Shadow here, so it will have to be finished post insertion. Oh and before I forget, here take this." She then handed me a simple, yet elegant looking, long broadsword. "The blade I've just given you is the indestructible holy sword known as Sunfire, and you should know that it is meant to be used in a two-handed fashion", she said. "So keep these things in mind. Goodbye and good luck."

Suddenly everything was dark, and I was left alone to whatever this place was. Then there was a sharp pain in my side, followed by an unknown person falling on me.


	2. The Verge of History

**The Verge of History**

"Lissa are you alright!?" A strong male voice called out to whoever it was that had just fallen on me. This was followed by the sound of someone, presumably the guy who had just spoken running up to where we were.

"I'm fine big brother I just tripped." Lissa spoke as she used my body to help herself up. I was curious by this point and had decided to open my eyes, or at least I tried to.

"Uhh, Lissa I think you tripped over someone." The masculine voice said, apparently noticing my presence. Thankfully I was able to open my eyes without having to snap them shut right away due to how bright it was out. What I saw was anything but expected, there were two people kneeling over me, one was a girl with long blonde hair done up in several pigtails and who looked about 16. The other was a young midnight blue haired man who had a sword and scabbard strapped to his hip and a weird tattoo on his arm. Each of the two people regarded me with a look that could only be the concern for my well-being coupled with something more.

Finally the blue haired guy broke what was starting to become an awkward silence by offering to help me up off the ground, which I graciously accepted. As I stumbled to my feet even with the help of this blue headed stranger, I noticed that there was a third person in light blue armor with a silver trim that seemed to eye me with great suspicion.

"So is it really that surprising to find someone napping in a field?" I asked, noticing the odd looks on their faces.

"Ahh what no it's just that well uhh-"

"So what's your name?" The blonde cut in, saving her befuddled companion from further embarrassment.

"My, name?" I parroted back to the pair, confusion clear in my voice.

"Yeah your name, what is it?" The girl asked again. Sounding a little more concerned than before.

I was about to tell them that I wasn't sure what my name was when my mind's eye abruptly filled with images of the strange dream I'd just woke up from. One reputation in particular stood out from the others, it was a name! _'It's yours'_ came a voice in my head. Part of me wanted to question this voice, but I could do that later.

"My name's Aidan, what are yours?" I asked while somehow managing to not let on that the name had just come to me.

"Oh my name's Lissa and this is my big brother Chrom!" Lissa cried out enthusiastically.

"So then who's he?" I asked noting that only two of the three had been introduced while simultaneously pointing towards the regal looking brunette who was still eyeing me with suspicion.

The knight answered me though seemed rather offended by my hand gesture that I had thought was meaningless. "I am Sir Frederick of Ylisse."

"Oh okay but umm, just what is a Ylisse anyway?" I asked not even trying to not sound stupid.

"You're not a Plegian are you?" Frederick grilled.

"No I dunn even know what a Plegia is!" I countered quickly my panic level rising.

"A likely story. Exactly what you'd expect from a spy or worse yet, an assassin!" Frederick conjectured whilst drawing his lance.

"That's enough Frederick!" Chrom snarled. "We can sort this out when we get back into town."

I didn't know why but for whatever reason Frederick decided to sheath his weapon, not that I cared at the moment because I was too busy thanking whatever powers were at work here for sparing me from death.

"So then that settles it Aidan will come with us." Lissa stated happily.

"Unless he its determined that he is a threat to either you, your brother or Ylisse." Frederick pointed out.

"Well then let's get going then." Chrom said. "We have a long walk ahead of us before we reach town."

After about half an hour of walking and my barely keeping pace with the others due to fatigue, Chrom and Lissa bolted into the nearest clearing with Frederick in tow. I don't have the slightest idea what it was that made me follow them, maybe it was that I still haven't recovered my memories, and I really did want them back. Well whatever the reason was, I had decided to charge in after them.

"What's going on?" I asked running up beside Frederick. Who without turning to face me responded. "Milord and lady have found another person collapsed on the road."

"Really?!" I asked, not able to keep the surprise out of my voice. Frederick simply responded by shaking his head and walking over to the conversation that was already underway, leaving me with the obvious choice of meeting up with the others.

As I walked on to the scene I noticed Chrom and Lissa were arguing, presumably over the guy on the ground or rather what to do with him. "Look Lissa we can't just carry him he'd weigh us down." Chrom said matter'of'factly. "I know that but we have to do something." She retorted. "Well what do you suppose we should do then?" Chrom asked patiently.

Thankfully Lissa didn't have to answer because at that particular moment the man on the ground began to stir from his sleep which caught both Chrom and Lissa's attention, causing what I can only imagine an eerie sort of symmetry as almost exactly the same scene played out in front of me, except this time I was in a much safer place than before.

"You know milord's name but your own." I heard Frederick say quite skeptically.

"Look I know it's strange but the name just came to me!" The man exclaimed.

It looked like Frederick wanted to say more but he was silent instead, probably because of the events that happened earlier. "Well I guess you're coming with us then." Chrom said. "I mean we wouldn't be doing our due diligence as shepherds if we didn't at least escort you to safety."

"Uhh right well thanks, I guess." The man said. He sounded as confused as I was.

After about another fifteen minutes of walking the new guy stopped us, "Robin that's my name, Robin." "Well that's one mystery solved I suppose." Chrom sighed, but we should really keep moving we're almo..." "Chrom look the town." Lissa cried. Subsequently we all craned our necks to get a look at what she was so excited over. What we saw shook us to the very core of our being, the entire town was in flames!

"Gods We have to do something, come on shepherds!" Chrom sounded angry.

"What about those two?" Frederick asked not trying to hide the distrust for us in his voice.

"Unless they're on fire they can wait." Chrom retorted impatiently. "Aptly put milord." Was all Frederick said before taking off after the other two, leaving Robin and I in a rather awkward situation.

"So what's your name?" Robin asked.

"Aidan." I replied.

"We should really do something to help." Robin pointed out. I couldn't help but nod in agreement at his words.

"Well that settles it then we're helping." Robin said running towards the fire.

Sighing I ran after Robin hoping to keep him from getting killed. When I got to the town a good part of the fighting was already done with, I noticed that Robin and Chrom were fighting really well together than it hit me like a ton of bricks, I didn't have a weapon.

_'You have a two-handed sword on your back, use it.'_

Okay this voice is starting to get both annoying and worrisome. But sure enough there was a large sword strapped to a scabbard on my back. As I drew the sword I noticed something strange about it, looked exactly the same as the one from my dream.

_'You idiot it is the sword from your dream.'_

I'd worry about why I was hearing a voice later because now I had bandits to deal with. Three of them exactly. However one of them made it to me before the other two. He carried a couple of hand axes and to make matters worse he looked a lot stronger than I was. He must have noticed this because he charged me almost immediately, but surprisingly I was able to parry his strike with relative ease and even follow-up with a lethal or at least an incapacitating counter-strike.

_'Good job, now deal with the mage before the swordsman gets here.'_

"Mage? what mage?" I wondered aloud. This question got answered when I felt a searing heat hit my back, the heat was so intense that I collapsed on the ground and nearly passed out. "Right that mage." I muttered.

As I turned to face this new foe it dawned on me that there was no way I would make it to the brigand who attacked me before he had another spell charged, to make my life even more complicated the swordsman was now protecting the mage. "Well here goes nothing!" I shouted as I ran forward at top speed, eager to keep the adrenaline going.

The sword guy ran towards me while the mage started to charge another fire spell, this is not going to end well I thought as both blades crossed each other, not only does he have back up but he's also a lot faster than me. Our swords had begun dancing with each other, well he was dancing I was just trying to keep up. This went on for what felt like forever, and I had grown tired of the routine we had going. So I decided to take a chance and try to break through his defense, after firmly blocking one of his strikes I launched a kick into his kneecap and he fell off-balance which gave me the opening I needed to land the only blow I would need to kill him, since I sliced my sword deep into his shoulder and forced it out with a strong kick to the gut.

At that point Frederick and Lissa came up to me on horseback, "Are you hurt?" Lissa asked while giving me a once over.

"Yeah a mage hit me with a fire spell." I said turning my back to her and gesturing my thumb towards my burned spine.

"Oh, I'll take care of this." she said.

There was a green light and suddenly I was incredibly itchy than just as quickly as the light appeared it stopped leaving me with a fleeting feeling of itchiness.

"Uhh thanks Lissa." I said unsure of what just happened. "So where to now?" I asked.

"We should head to Ylisstol immediately." Frederick said.

"Frederick can't we stay?!" Lissa pouted. "I believe you said you would be getting used to this." Frederick replied.

This brought on some light joking at the knights expense though he seemed used to it. And so began hiking through the forest with the knowledge that it would soon be night and that we would need to stop soon.


	3. Eye in the Sky

**Eye in the Sky**

"Oh come on Frederick, just eat the damn thing!" Lissa exclaimed.

"I already told you milady, I'm quite full" Frederick defended.

"But you killed and cooked the stupid bear for crying out loud" Lissa countered.

"Now Lissa, if Frederick wants to starve, that's his prerogative" Chrom cut in.

"Well it's getting late," I said. "I'm going to bed."

"Night all" I called out lazily as I walked away from the others.

"G'night Aidan," everyone except Frederick called back.

As I waited for sleep to come to me with the back of my head in my hands and face pointed towards the starlit sky, I reflected on everything that had happened to me in the past 24 hours. This was actually quite calming, to say the least. So much so, that I could no longer keep my eyes open.

Suddenly it felt as though my entire perspective had changed, in the literal sense that I was now somehow standing in what appeared to be a dimly lit room of some kind. "Good, you're finally here; I was beginning to worry a little," an all too familiar voice came from the darkness.

"Who are you and why did you bring me here!?" I spat angrily at the voice's owner, after forcing myself stay as calm as I could be in this situation. "Wait, where is here anyway?" I asked as I surveyed the now brightening landscape.

"Well I suppose introductions are in order now, aren't they?" There was a brief pause as a tall male figure stepped out of the shadows. "And if you must know, my name is Wraith." The man who I now knew as Wraith said flatly.

"Alright Wraith, where am I?" I asked rather coldly.

Wraith responded by turning from me as though he were going to just leave me here to die; he then cocked his head back towards me and said, "Walk with me."

This wasn't an invitation, it was an order. I knew that much at least. This was probably the only chance I'd ever have to find out what was going on, but at the same time, it easily could be a trick of some kind.

In the end, my need for knowledge is what got me to follow Wraith. When I finally caught up with Wraith, I asked him, "Where are we going?" He didn't respond; he just motioned for me to keep following him.

Suddenly, he signaled for us to stop. "Well I guess you must really want your answers then, don't you? he said while turning to face me.

"Yeah, I do!" I replied back to Wraith.

"Then the first thing you should know is that this place you're in now is your awakened state-of-mind." he answered back to me.

"The second thing is that you get here by going to sleep."

"Wait, so if I'm asleep now, then where's my body?" I interrupted.

"In this realm's physical plane." Wraith replied.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense, but what I don't get about that last statement is the "**this realm" **part; am I not from the world I'm in now?" I responded.

"No you're not, and yes there are multiple variations of reality that exist."

"Now as for why you're here, well I'll be blunt with this part; you were alive once before in another world known as Earth, but sadly you died."

"Wait, I'm dead, but that can't be…you just said I was sleeping." I practically shouted at Wraith.

"You're not dead now, you just used to be until Naga reanimated you."

"Okay, but then-"

"I'm getting to that." Wraith said, cutting me off from my question.

"Now as for why Naga chose you to reanimate and not some other dead chump, well the reason for that is you cared about what happened to people on Earth."

"Wait, that's it, that's why this is happening to me?" I asked a little angry at the situation.

"Well that, and your personality bore a striking resemblance to that of the Exalted lines."

"Really, how so?" I asked, now more curious than anything else.

"Because like the Exalted line, you had a tendency to protect those you cared for, even if it meant throwing yourself into harm's way." Wraith said.

"Also not unlike the Exalted line, you'd try to help people in trouble even if you didn't know them," he continued.

"Alright, so I was a good person who cared about people. Anything else, or is that it?" I questioned.

"No, that basically wraps up this topic," Wraith replied.

"Now where was I, ah yes, the reason you were brought here is because Earth is in just as much danger as this world is now."

"The world seems fine to me," I said.

"Well, looks are often deceiving," Wraith spat angrily.

"Now as for why everything is so dark , well to put things simply, you have to forge bonds with the shepherds in order to get more light," Wraith said tiredly, apparently having calmed down from his earlier outburst.

"Oh, one more thing, please wake up. Something's about to happen that will show you just how much danger the worlds are in," Wraith said to me as he walked back into the seclusion that the shadows of my mind offered him. So with no further reason to stay, every reason imaginable to go, I woke up.

"Aw, what the hell, it's still night out!" I exclaimed to no one in particular.

It was then that I noticed that Chrom and Lissa were nowhere in the general area. I was about to go looking for them when the ground began to violently shake. This toppled over several trees that surrounded our campsite, and then I noticed that there was fire raining down from the sky, or more accurately, up from the ground into the sky and back down to the ground again. Either way, it was causing a massive forest fire. Thankfully, Frederick and Robin were awake by this time, so I didn't have to wake them up.

"God, what's going on?" Robin asked while surveying his drastically different surroundings.

"Where are Chrom and Lissa?" Frederick demanded of me while grabbing me by the arms.

"Look, I don't know the answer to either of those questions, but now, we should focus on getting out of here."

"I agree with Aidan; if we don't get out soon, then we won't get out at all," Robin said plainly.

"Alright then, we'll look for them on the way out though," Frederick conceded.

We all nodded our heads in agreement, and quickly ran for the fastest way to safety. On the way there however, we were all stopped by something that you just don't see every day. What that thing was, to be blunt, was a gigantic eye portal in the sky that had countless black bodies falling out of it.

Suddenly, the black bodies stopped falling, and the eye portal looked like it was going to disappear. Then one last normal looking body came out of the wormhole, falling down to the ground, and then the portal closed just like it had never been there to begin with. We didn't have much time to wonder what just happened though, because we abruptly heard an ear-splitting scream.

"That was Lissa, come on it came from this direction," Frederick beckoned as he charged in ahead of us on horseback, and we did indeed follow him the short distance to the scream.

What we saw when we got there was anything but expected, an ash-bodied freak with crazed red eyes and an axe had Lissa and a mysterious masked man backed into a corner, although its intent was probably just to kill Lissa.

"Help!" the masked stranger called out to no one in particular after blocking a blow from the axe that would have surely killed Lissa. At this, we began running again so that Lissa would not be hurt by her assailant; however Chrom was the first on scene, and with the mysterious man's help, quickly dispatched whatever the hell that thing was to the afterlife.

Chrom took notice of us only after looking over his sister for injury. When he was satisfied that she was okay, he fell into the position that Robin had left open for him and motioned for Lissa to stay behind him, which she did. And so began our counter-assault on whatever these things were.

We were probably a good five minutes into the battle when we heard voices, human ones at that. And as it turned out, they belonged to another shepherd named Sully and a philandering archer named Virion. With their help, I managed to kill three more of these abominations, bringing my total kill count for the battle so far to five. I also managed to learn that Sully was, shall we say, competitive and quite the tomboy.

"Aidan, I need you up front now," Robin called back to me.

"Sorry guys, I guess my life story is going to have to wait," I said as I ran towards what had become the frontlines of the battle. Sully shot me a death glare, Virion seemed relieved for whatever reason as I made my advance towards the head of the assault.

Turns out the reason I had been called up front was to reinforce Chrom and Robin against the leader of the abominations, which was fine by me; I could use the experience.

Robin and Chrom had just begun to engage the enemy leader when I arrived. They were working together in perfect harmony, but even so, I could tell that the leader would come out on top if I did nothing. Knowing this, I charged into the heat of battle eager to create an opening, and I did so by tackling him to the ground right as he was about to overpower the duo. Seeing my chance and knowing that there might not be another one, I struck my sword into the leader's black body, and it exploded into a puff of purple smoke.

"Well that was close; is everyone alright?" I half muttered and half sighed as I turned to face the tired, and possibly wounded, Chrom and Robin.

"We're alright, thanks to you Aidan," Chrom said as he helped Robin to his feet.

"Good to hear," I say to the two of them as Frederick and the mystery man approached us.

"Milord, there don't appear to be anymore creatures in the immediate area, and this young man seems to be at least partly to thank for that."

"Oh! You're the one that saved my sister. Might I ask your name, so I can properly thank you?" Chrom said happily, with a bit of hope in his eyes.

The man who, for whatever reason, seemed to be giving Robin a look of some kind, did not miss a beat; he turned to Chrom and replied, "You may call me Marth." though part of his gaze seemed perpetually fixed to Robin, even as he spoke to Chrom.

"Marth, you mean like the heroic king of old? Well, I suppose the name fits; you certainly do fight like a hero," Chrom said as everyone else approached our small group.

"Tonight is not about me; the worlds are all teetering on the brink of a horrible calamity, and tonight was only the prelude!" Marth exclaimed prophetically.

"Wait, what?!" I exclaim.

"You have been warned," Marth said while turning to walk away.

"Wait Marth, what do you- augh." I had moved to catch him before he left, when my head suddenly felt like it was going to quite literally explode all over the place, so needless to say, I screamed the last part before quickly passing out.


End file.
